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In 1912, Thomas
Mackenzie was appointed as the New Zealand High Commissioner to London; a post
he held until 1920. Mackenzie was particularly concerned about the treatment of
New Zealand soldiers and made several visits to see the troops during the war.

In this clip,
Mackenzie, with his back to the camera, talks to New Zealanders outside the 2nd
New Zealand Field Ambulance station.

During his visit, Mackenzie
also joined the 2nd Otago church parade, inspected the New Zealand
Engineers, and made an address to the 3rd Otago Battalion. At the
end of Mackenzie’s visit Major General Sir Andrew Russell noted in his diary:
"The whole visit has been successful, fine weather – just enough
speechifying but not too much."

A sergeant from the 1st battalion, NZ Rifle brigade fires rifle grenades from a trench. The work is repetitious and dangerous as rifle grenades were temperamental sometimes landing in the trench, or exploding in the barrel.

The destructive power of heavy artillery fire is seen in a pan across the pulverised remains of a village, the scene is one of complete desolation. The pan ends on a trench scene, sandbags are piled high and soldiers with their gas mask satchels on their chest descend into a dugout.

A line of soldiers stumble through a large shell hole knee-deep in water, it is some 20 meters in diameter and 4-5 metres deep. The soldiers are conscious of the camera however the conditions are not staged, they are typical of those endured by the NZ Division in the low-lying trenches of Northern France during the winters of 1916 and 1917. It was not uncommon for men to spend up to eight days at a stretch in these tough conditions.

Street scenes in El Mejdel after the capture of Jaffa on 16 November 1917, by the Wellington Mounted Rifle Regiment, New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade and ANZAC Mounted Division.

A shot of the town hall clock shows that filming had occurred within half an hour of the town's capture. Members of a New Zealand troop, with their tethered horses, relax on the outskirts of the town. They are cleaning up, smoking and enjoying a drink in the shade after a week of hard riding and heavy fighting.

King George V inspects 7,000 New Zealand troops at Bulford Field on 1 May 1917. New Zealand’s high command did not miss the opportunity and also present were Generals, Brigadiers, the Prime Minister William Massey – Leader of the Opposition Joseph Ward Leader and their wives and daughters and other dignitaries.

The 7,000 New Zealand troops on parade included: 4,000 from 4th Brigade; 1,500 from Sling Camp; 1,000 from Codford Command along with Engineers, ASC, Cadets and a few mounted rifles. After inspecting the troops, the King took the march-past and presented medals.

An ambulance arrives at a New Zealand General Hospital and medical orderlies unload wounded soldiers. Around them are wounded men in various states of recovery – note the number of walking sticks and amputees. All of the patients are dressed in “hospital blues,” a uniform worn by all hospital soldiers in the United Kingdom. Under the Defence of the Realm Act it was forbidden for Public Houses to sell liquor to a soldier in hospital blues.

Can you help us identify
the hospital? We know it is a New Zealand General Hospital, so it is either Brockenhurst
or Walton-on-Thames. Pease contact us if can you help us.

In this brief clip
a group of New Zealand soldiers smile and wave to the camera. They have been
invalided out of the war and are on their way home. The camera pans to show
“trophies” of war – two soldiers wear gas masks, while a third displays an iron
cross – all souvenired from the battlefields, from German soldiers.

Scenes from the “Strawberry Fete” held at Torquay in Devon in the United Kingdom on Alexandra Day, Wednesday 27 June 1917. Promoted by the Four Allied Trades: Dairymen, Fruiterers, Grocers and Bakers, the fete was both a fund-raiser and a morale booster.

Stretcher bearers
evacuate a wounded soldier from the front line on a stretcher case on a
‘jigger’. The stretcher case is wheeled into the courtyard of the ADS (Advanced
Dressing Station). Medicals admit the soldier and his condition is assessed and
wounds dressed. More serious cases would have been evacuated by motor ambulance
to the Main Dressing Station, in this case the No.3 Field Ambulance at Pont
D’Achelles. Just as the ambulance drives off an orderly runs out and throws a
soldier’s pack on board.

Filmed in June 1917,
in Northern France when the New Zealand Division was on the front line forward
of Ploegsteert Wood. It was a period of heavy activity – the buildings were
under constant shellfire and were heavily sandbagged.

Although unconfirmed until after the war, one of the
biggest enemies soldiers faced was lice! They thrived in squalid, unhygienic
trench conditions and were carriers of bacteria – causing the mysterious
disease known as Trench Fever, along with typhus and scabies. And they made men
– already suffering under appalling conditions –
unbearably itchy, irritable and depressed!

To try and combat this, the work of the Medical Corps
included sanitation “cleansing stations” where men were able to bathe and their
uniforms and blankets were steam-cleaned. Watch as freshly bathed soldiers, wrapped
in blankets, hand in their uniforms for cleansing in the Fodden Lorry
Disinfector.

This rare film records a civic ceremony for New Zealand troops departing for
the front. It shows the official farewell to the Wellington Section of the NZ
Expeditionary Force on 24 September 1914. The troops are inspected by a group
of dignitaries, including Prime Minister William Massey, Lord Liverpool the
Governor-General and Major General Sir Alexander Godley. They then march four
abreast down Adelaide Road and along Lambton Quay, Wellington’s main shopping
street. The men of the NZEF are
then seen crammed on board the deck and high up on the rigging of a troopship.
Most have happy faces as they await what they expected would be a grand
adventure. Contrast this with the more subdued figures of the 6th Reinforcement
who appear at the end of the film. They are seen departing for the front in
August 1915, when the horrors of the Gallipoli Campaign had become widely
known.